2023 Nottingham Open WTA Preview including Sakkari, Haddad Maia, Vekic, Kalinina and Parks

The Nottingham Open is one of the first stops en route to Wimbledon and is the first UK based tournament on the main WTA calendar ahead of the grass court major.

Played between 12-18 June 2023, TennisUpToDate will preview the action ahead of the tournament beginning which also runs in tandem with an ATP Challenger. This includes Andy Murray playing again.

But what about the WTA tournament? The main name involved is Greek ace Maria Sakkari with the World No.8 usually used to the latter stages of Roland Garros.

This means she doesn't usually start her grass court season till later in the month, but it was a deja vu loss in the first round to Karolina Muchova.

The Czech ace also defeated her last year but this year, it saw Muchova go all the way to the final in some solace.

Sakkari will see this as a golden opportunity to add to her Rabat title albeit in a tougher field than usual in the East Midlands.

After a landmark run at Roland Garros, there is no rest for the wicked as the phrase goes as Beatriz Haddad Maia will hop straight onto a plane or Eurostar in the direction of Nottingham.

Haddad Maia is the defending champion defeating Alison Riske last year for her maiden WTA title. She then added Birmingham and has now risen up the rankings going into next week inside the top 10.

A first for a South American player after reaching the semi-finals in Paris. But in many ways, she has a lot to thank Nottingham for.

With her run last year, she emerged as a key contender on grass and will hope to repeat the feat this year with her top status in the top 10 likely seeing her as one of the Wimbledon favourites.

Donna Vekic has won Nottingham and lost in the final in Nottingham before and so has happy memories also of the tournament. She is also involved.

As is Anhelina Kalinina after her clay court emergence and this tournament also gives an acid test for Alycia Parks on grass with the emerging American testing herself on a new surface with Magda Linette also initially top seed.

A good field is assembled and albeit one that competes directly with the Libema Open which features Victoria Azarenka, Bianca Andreescu and Venus Williams among others, it still brings star power.

This could've been furthered more with Ajla Tomljanovic but in the curious case of the Aussie, she has once again withdrawn from a return to action.